Killing more deer
a ludicrous solution

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Monday, July 30, 2007

She says, "By reducing deer per square mile, we can eradicate Lyme disease "�" There is no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis. It is a cruel hoax to give people false hope that hunting will cure the complex problem of Lyme disease.

The deer herd throughout an entire town would have to be reduced by 86 percent and maintained at that level for deer to be no longer a key host. If there were 30 deer in a one-square-mile tract of land, then 25 deer would have to be killed and no others allowed to take their place.

Any thinking person knows that this "plan" is ludicrous. There is no access to where the deer are, and there never will be, in spite of the state Department of Environmental Protection's irresponsible, unsafe scam involving private property owners inviting hunters to their backyards.

There will never be any significant number of households which will allow hideously cruel bow hunting. But scamming will continue by the DEP and its consorts like Ms. Scholl. They will push for ever more ridiculous accommodations like extended seasons, Sunday hunting, hunting after sunset, and other insanities ad nauseam.

Hunters have pushed for these things for decades, long before Lyme disease was ever an issue, and that alone reveals their actual selfish motives.

All Connecticut residents should insist that the DEP's wildlife division be revamped to represent the interests of the 99 percent of the public who do not hunt. Our tax dollars should no longer be used to pay the salaries of hunter DEP employees, solely for the benefit of hunters.